Stuart Cosgrove has been the co-presenter of the much beloved BBC Radio Scotland football show Off the Ball for 25 years. A St Johnstone fan, born and raised in Perth, Stuart is also a Northern Soul music enthusiast, author and former C4 television executive. Perhaps in that order.
His recent Soul Trilogy, 'Detroit 67', 'Memphis 68', and 'Harlem 69' are perhaps the finest books written on soul music this century. His memoir of the British Northern Soul scene, 'Young Soul Rebels', does the remarkable job of tying his life of all-nighters to the major political and social events of Britain in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, including the Miners' Strike and the Yorkshire Ripper.
At C4 he was involved with era-defining programmes such as Football Italia and Fr Ted. He was also the station's producer for the 2012 Paralympics. Before his C4 career, he wrote about black music for the NME and the Face.
He has a PhD in Drama and Theatre Studies from Hull University where he tells us that he played with a decorated former Irish international winger and against a man who would eventually go on to buy Rangers FC.
In this amazing podcast, recorded in February at his house in Dennistoun in the east end of Glasgow prior to me attending the Celtic Kilmarnock game at Parkhead, he talks about the difficulties Scottish football has in the shadow of the EPL, the role that football plays in Scottish cultural life, what Fr Ted told him about what the net could do for football fans and the poisonous nature of a lot of football chat online.

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